Cake and a tummy scar

Ahead of his role as Rocky in The Rocky Horror Show, Dominic Andersen talks physique and iniquities with Sam Bennett

"I do sometimes get a bit upset that people just think I’m Rocky because of my body. I do bring more to the table. I’m very much an actor working on his craft."

On the day I sat with Dominic Andersen in a New Theatre dressing room, he’d been posing for photos in his underwear at Oxford’s Mini Plant – the idea being that the actor playing Frank-N-Furter’s ‘perfect’ creation in a Rocky Horror Show tour is photographed in an establishment striving to create perfect motor vehicles.

Dominic’s experience at Mini had apparently been “a bit awkward. But it’s a laugh and you soon get used to it – just like standing on stage in your pants in front of however many people.”

If I owned the body Dominic did, I reckon I’d be alright with appearing half-naked in front of people. As is necessary when talking to someone in excellent shape I took it upon myself to find out the things that are wrong with him, because that makes the rest of us feel far better about ourselves.

“I have a scar on my tummy,” the performer says. Great. A vice that simply draws attention to his toned abdominal muscles. “You spend so much time building yourself up…” Dominic utters of his ego as I sit poised for an alternative flaw.

“I love food,” he offers. “I’m obsessed. I’m a pig. I eat so much cake – I love it. I suppose that could be seen as a vice. And I put fake tan on.”

That’ll do…though normally I hope for nicotine addiction or total caffeine dependency.

“I do sometimes get a bit upset that people just think I’m Rocky because of my body,” Dominic admits when we discuss the idea of his figure being talked about ahead of his acting and singing abilities. "I do bring more to the table. I’m very much an actor working on his craft.”

The Rocky Horror Show comes to New Theatre Oxford 13th-31st December, the Christmas show. I’ll always remember 2016 for being a ‘serious’ period, perhaps a fun Christmas show is as important as ever this year.

“I think in this world,” Dominic says, “the media love to make negative things quite prominent and exciting. Obviously we shouldn’t ignore these things, but it’s nice to have some energy that will keep people excited and positive. Rocky Horror will never depress me, even though I die at the end. It’s like a party for two hours. Everyone is sexually charged and happy.”

It’s not his dream role in the typical sense. He wasn’t some six year old watching the Richard O'Brien cult classic praying that one day he would fill the shoes of Peter Hinwood. When he was told to go for the audition he got the show muddled up with Little Shop of Horrors – “sorry Rocky Horror fans.”

He recalls: “Once I was auditioning for it I was like ‘this is interesting, let’s see what happens…’